


There's A Time For Panic

by Krasimer



Series: I Always Swore I Was Going To Marry Him Someday [6]
Category: Sally Face (Video Games)
Genre: And they don't like it, Awkward First Times, Dorks in Love, Fade to Black, First Time, Fluff and Angst, Idiots in Love, M/M, No actual porn, Prom, Sal and Larry are watching the future happen to them, School Dances, Teen Romance, Teenage Dorks, because teenagers, canon is creeping closer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-28
Updated: 2019-02-28
Packaged: 2019-11-07 06:17:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17955176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Krasimer/pseuds/Krasimer
Summary: “Sal, you’re…You’re it for me. That’s it, that’s the whole game.” He stepped close enough to put a hand on Sal’s cheek, tracing the scars there with the tip of his thumb. “I know our parents are being weird and I know our lives won’t settle down anytime soon, but I just…This is where I want to be.”Sal’s hand wrapped around his wrist again, keeping him close as he looked up and met Larry’s eyes. “I…” he laughed a little, his eyes closing as he leaned into Larry’s palm. “Larry, this is exactly where I want to be.”“Here?”“With you.”(The future is always arriving faster than we'd like.)





	There's A Time For Panic

The music was too loud.

Larry watched as the crowd of people moved around him, where he held down a table. The music was too loud and the snacks were awful and he didn’t even know why he was there. The suit he was wearing had been rented for the occasion, a dark blue bowtie tied neatly under his chin, matching the dark blue band around his waist.

Matching the dark blue of Sal’s eyes.

He leaned an elbow on the table, refusing to make eye contact with any of the other people around him as he watched and waited.

There he was.

His suit was a little awkwardly fitting, his shoulders too thin for the way he’d shot up in height, but Sal looked _great._ He and Ashe were talking, moving through the crowd together. Her girlfriend’s attention was elsewhere for the moment, her arm looped through Ashe’s, and the three of them were heading back for Larry. Sal held two cups of punch, Ashe holding her own.

When they settled back into their seats, Sal leaned into Larry’s space, setting the cup of punch in front of him and rubbing his chin along Larry’s shoulder.

It made a part of him, still scared and trembling and worried, calm down immediately. There was so much happening, lately, so many people who had changed, so much unexplained. Prom wasn’t, probably, the best use of their time, but it was a distraction. It was a night to just be teenagers, just be young and stupid and normal.

Sal’s head on his shoulder as he talked to Ashe was a welcome weight, his blue hair splashing out across Larry’s suit in a way he itched to draw. The contrast of the light blue versus the dark blue of the bowtie and cummerbund was beautiful and he wanted to put the moment to paper, to make it last _forever._ Ashe’s girlfriend was already nose-deep in the book she’d brought to the dance when he glanced over at her, her eyes wide as she read whatever story it was that had entranced her.

Ashe caught his eyes, glancing at Sal with a smile on her face, looking back and nodding.

There was something about the way she smiled, the twinkle in her eye, that made him feel a little nervous. “We’re still going to the hotel after, right?” she asked out loud. Her girlfriend nodded silently, still refusing to look up from her book.

“We’ve got it rented out,” Sal shrugged and Larry nudged his chin against the top of his head. “Might as well use it.”

“Yeah,” Larry reached his hand under the table, curling their fingers together. They had been together for a while now, and their parents hadn’t gotten any less weird. Their apartment building hadn’t gotten any less weird.

Their lives hadn’t gotten any less weird.

But this was their prom night – despite the weirdness, despite the things that had happened, Larry was here with Sal and Ashe was with the girl she’d been seeing for a couple of weeks, a girl named Sara. They were seniors in high school, ready to head towards a future that, while maybe it wasn’t the brightest, it was one that promised they would still all be together. Larry would be able to hold onto Sal and love him until the world ended.

Just like he had wanted since they had first kissed.

When they left the dance, nearer the end than Larry had thought they would be there until, Ashe and Sara broke off and headed for the bathroom. They both told them to head to the car, borrowed from Larry’s mom, without them – they would catch up. Sal’s dad might have had the better car, but Larry’s mom was the parent willing to lend a car. With Sal’s singular eye, he wasn’t likely to have a driver’s license. He could, theoretically, but it would be difficult and driving would be a frustration for him.

As they wandered through the parking lot to the car, Larry let his fingers tangle with Sal’s, smiling with the shorter boy looked up at him.

There was the tilt of his shoulder that meant he was smiling.

His prosthetic made it a little difficult to read his expressions but Larry had practically memorized an entire language of body movements that made it easy to see how Sal was feeling. There was an entire section of his brain devoted to knowing Sal, to knowing what made him happy, what made him laugh. The way his hair looked when it was under the lights he sometimes hung up on his walls, the way his false eye was a little shinier than his real one, the way his hands looked when he was stressed out over a test.

They didn’t say anything, just walked together, but Larry knew Sal was smiling.

Their hands were still clasped together when they got to the car and Larry spotted the paper on the window, taped to the frame of the car. It was Ashe’s handwriting, a short note explaining that they wouldn’t be going to the hotel room with them.

That they were just going to have to go without the girls of the group.

While Larry read it, he felt Sal’s fingers go tight on his hand and he knew – nervous, worried about something. Sal had known about this. “Guess we’re going to the hotel room without them, then,” he felt a flare of nerves and he smiled when Sal headbutted his shoulder.

“Guess we are,” Sal’s eyes pinned him with a look, his hand falling away from Larry’s as he slipped around the car and into the passenger seat.

“Hey, Sally face?”

“What’s up, Larry face?”

Larry leaned across the divider between their seats and put his hands on the sides of Sal’s face, drawing him in until his lips pressed against Sal’s prosthetic, a quick kiss against the unmoving lips of it. “I’m glad I’m here with you,” he chuckled when he pulled away. Sal didn’t let him get too far, his hands wrapping around Larry’s wrists. “I’m glad we met, I’m glad you moved in, god—I’m so fucking happy you moved in and I got to meet you.” He met Sal’s eyes. “I just need you to know that. That I love you.”

After a minute, Sal nodded, his hands relaxing and letting go of Larry’s wrists. “Love you too, you absolute _nerd_ ,” Larry could hear the laughter in his voice but he could also hear the relief.

From the way his shoulders settled, Larry could see that whatever had been worrying him was no longer a pressing concern.

 

The hotel room wasn’t amazing, but they had planned to have at least one night away from the apartments.

One night of something approaching normal.

Larry went to the window to look at the view, his hands tucked in the pockets of his slacks as he did. It had been somewhat late when they’d left the dance, late enough that the sky was dark and he could see the stars.

Behind him, he heard the rustling of fabric and the sound of something hitting a hard surface.

He’d been around Sal long enough to know it was the sound of his prosthetic hitting a table. Back when they had first gotten together, Sal had been almost religious about keeping his face hidden. Nothing was allowed to move his mask, nothing was allowed to come between him and it. Their first kiss had been with Sal keeping his hand over Larry’s eyes.

But now…

Now, Sal stood in front of him.

His prosthetic was lying on the table, his suit jacket had been pulled off and slung over the back of a chair. He toed at the back of one of his shoes, looking down. Since their senior year had begun, he’d started wearing his hear down and it made him look like the best sort of vision. Like something from one of Larry’s best dreams.

Right now, he looked _good_ in a way that Larry didn’t think he could describe.

In a way he couldn’t draw.

He gestured at himself, his mouth curved like he was trying to find the right words. “This is me,” he said after a few seconds. “This is what I am, this is what I look like. I’m a weird prom date and I get fucked up comments at the actual dance itself and I don’t know how to hold my temper all the time and I get too obsessed with things sometimes and then I don’t sleep enough – my point is, you know me. You know what I’m like, what I like...” he cleared his throat, then looked up. “Larry, you know _me._ ”

His hands twisted together in front of him. “You know almost all of me.”

Feeling a blush slam into his face so hard it was like he’d been hit by a semi, Larry took a step forward. “I’ve never wanted to know anyone else,” he chuckled, knowing that the quickly growing darker color of his face would give his thoughts away. “Sal, you’re…You’re _it_ for me. That’s it, that’s the whole game.” He stepped close enough to put a hand on Sal’s cheek, tracing the scars there with the tip of his thumb. “I know our parents are being weird and I know our lives won’t settle down anytime soon, but I just…This is where I want to be.”

Sal’s hand wrapped around his wrist again, keeping him close as he looked up and met Larry’s eyes. “I…” he laughed a little, his eyes closing as he leaned into Larry’s palm. “Larry, this is exactly where I want to be.”

“Here?”

“With you.”

He almost choked on the wave of fondness that rose through him right then, had to lean down and kiss Sal right that instant. When he did, Sal surged forward, moving with him and meeting him in the middle. Their hair was a shield around them, much like it had been during their first kiss and Larry put his other hand on Sal’s hip, pulling him that much closer.

When the kiss broke so they could both breathe, Sal laughed again. “I planned this, by the way. Ashe and I were talking and I told her I wanted to spend the night with you but the apartment building wasn’t…A great place to do this,” he looked away, his face pulled into an expression Larry recognized as nervous and concerned. It was entirely understandable, with what had been happening in the building. Neither of them had started anything beyond kissing while in their bedrooms.

And like that, he _understood._

“You want to—” he cleared his throat, taking a deep breath as Sal nodded. “Oh. _Oh._ ”

“I can understand if you don’t want to—”

“No,” Larry shook his head, pressing their foreheads together. “Sal, look at me,” he waited until those eyes were on him again. “Sal, I would be jumping on that opportunity right at this moment if I didn’t want to ask you if you were sure.”

“Larry,” Sal pinned him with a narrowed eyed look he knew meant Sal thought he was being ridiculous. “I’m the one who planned this.”

“I know, I just want to make sure it’s something you really want to do. We’re facing weird pressure from different sides of our lives, our parents are now dating, it’s understandable that this might be a panic thing.” He cupped his hands around Sal’s face, smiling as he nudged their noses together. “I just wanted to make sure.”

Sal smiled at him again, both of his hands curling into Larry’s shirt and dragging him back until they landed on the bed.

 

The morning happened slowly.

When Larry woke up, it was to a nice weight across his chest and several strands of blue hair in his mouth. Sal was a warm, heavy shape pressed against and into him, his hands tucked around Larry’s shoulders. The sun was just barely rising, the early morning birds singing outside the window.

The only problems were that his leg was cramping where it was curled up so that Sal had a place to lay down easily and that his mouth tasted like something had died in it.

But other than that, it was a great way to wake up.

Sal woke up after a few more minutes, stretching his spine slowly before collapsing back down and looking up to meet Larry’s eyes again. Before they had finally fallen asleep, they had gone through the absolute necessities – Sal’s false eye was in a glass on the bedside table. With the soft glow of the sun coming through the window, the way his hair was splashed out across the bed, Sal made a picture that Larry wanted to wake up to for the rest of his life.

“Hey,” Sal smiled at him. “You’re being a dork again.”

“As if I’m any less of a dork than you,” Larry leaned slightly in, nudging their noses together. Sal had once confessed to being nervous about his scars – hadn’t needed to, Larry had guessed from the way he hid his face during their kisses, covered Larry’s eyes – but he had worried that they were monster-like, something that would scare someone away.

Which was just ridiculous.

They looked a bit badass and they were a reminder that Sal had gone through some shit and survived it.

He loved Sal in his entirety, not just the parts of him that were ‘whole’ in some stupid definition of the society that existed around them. He didn’t love him because of the scars or in spite of them – he just loved Sal. Scars included because what stupid person would say someone was less loveable because of something that had happened to them?

“We’re going to have to go home soon,” Sal muttered as he glanced at the clock.

“Yeah,” Larry nodded, then put his arms around Sal’s waist and tugged him closer. “But that’s a few hours away.”

The giggle that escaped Sal made his heart pound a little faster.

He tangled his fingers in Sal’s hair and giggled with him, just holding him closer.

 

X

 

“You have to break up with him, Larry.”

He paused, blinked a couple of times, then turned to look at his mom. “What?”

“His father and I are getting married,” his mom, the most rational person he’d ever known, the person he knew had once _despised_ Sal’s father because of the way the man tended to ignore his son, had an engagement ring on her finger. Apparently from Sal’s father. “And it will look odd to have a pair of stepbrothers dating, Larry. You have to understand.”

There was something about her eyes, the way she was unfocused as she looked at him with a vague smile on her face.

A wave of panic rose in him and he looked from her finger to her face again, as if that would make anything about this _better._ As if it would make the weirdness of the scene fade away. His mom had been vocal about her anger at Sal’s dad from the day she had first talked to him. “When did you two get _engaged?_ ”

“Last night,” she smiled. “While you two were at your prom, he and I had an evening in and he asked me and I said yes.”

Her smile was off, somehow, not reaching her eyes.

Larry clenched his hand into a fist, taking a deep breath. He didn’t know how or why it had happened, but it seemed like something was echoing how he and Sal felt about each other into the next generation up from them. He didn’t know why, though he suspected it was because they had come too close a couple of times – split them apart and watch their plans stutter and falter because they weren’t together. “Mom—”

“No, Larry,” she frowned, the expression like a mask on her face. “The wedding is in two months.”

With that, she turned and walked away and Larry was left staring at her back, his mouth hanging open.

**Author's Note:**

> Y'all can take the triple-bi besties from my cold dead hands. Sal, Larry, and Ashley are all bi and I love the headcanon.
> 
> I didn’t flash forward to the upsetting future, this time! I hope you guys liked it!
> 
>  
> 
> Want to yell at me for making things sad? Go to my Discord! -- https://discord.gg/RmgTP5A


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